1944: Who then are you, Monsieur René Payot?

 "Who then are you, Monsieur René Payot, that in homes all over France, people gather every week to hear your voice, just as they likely do across all the oppressed countries of Europe?"

--Arthur Lubinski, October 1944 

René Payot
Source: Le Dauphine Libéré

     I've shared my grandfather's tribute to René Payot, but like (I suspect) most Americans, I'd never heard of him before coming across my grandfather's article. From what I've learned about him since, I think he must hold a place in Europe that is similar to that of Walter Cronkite on this side of the Atlantic, and Grandpa's tribute to Payot makes me want to read the transcripts of Payot's 12 or so broadcasts from the summer of 1944, though I haven't been able to find them.

    From what I can tell, Payot gave hope to millions of people who were living under Nazi occupation. It's hard for me to even imagine what that must have been like, gaining hope (rather than despair) from a journalist, because like most Americans, I have never lived under foreign occupation. And while I'm old enough to remember Mr. Cronkite, I am now living through a time of unprecedented distrust of the media. 

    There's not a whole lot about Payot on the internet.  There is no article about him on the English-language Wikipedia, and the one on the French Wiki* site is pretty rudimentary.

* If like me, you don't speak French, download translation extensions for your browser, and then the page will automatically display in whatever language you want.

    I did find out that in 1997, Michel Caillat published a book called René Payot, An Ambiguous Look at War, but it's in French and out-of-print.  I learned that his broadcasts were well-known for his objectivity and lack of spin, that he was trusted by the French, Belgians, and Swiss for being trustworthy, but I knew that already from my grandfather's writing.

    Payot was anti-communist and anti-Nazi, and while he initially supported the Vichy government in France, by 1942, he had become a staunch anti-fascist, and a supporter of Charles de Gaulle.  I did find that there is a scholarship in his name that is still being awarded today; it is supported by the radio stations of the French-speaking public media in Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Canada, among others.

    Other than that, my internet searches turned up little else, so I resorted to using AI to search for me (I know, I know), but it did gather a bit more than I had found before:

• His radio show was broadcast via the powerful transmitter in Sottens, Switzerland. Because it released unbiased information (the Swiss were officially neutral, though Payot was not), and because the Swiss army recognized how important unbiased reporting was, they protected it throughout the war.  
• He used the pseudonym "Puck," and was "known for his sharp political critiques," and sometimes satire.
• He was committed to Swiss federalism and democracy.
• He was inducted into the French French Legion of Honour.
• There's a square named for him in near the University of Geneva.
• His wartime broadcasts focused on communism, Nazism, and totalitarianism.
• He was good at analyzing complicated international events and reporting on them with a great deal of nuance to his listeners in a way that gained trust, by reporting the good and the bad (something the BBC also did during the war, and also gained trust because of it).
• His radio show continued until 1969.

      Perhaps Mr. Payot isn't well-known in America today, but when he died in Geneva in May of 1970, the New York Times published an obituary for him in the May 16, 1970 issue.